Hey, those powder puffs are leaning that way for a REASON! Leave ’em alone!
Mama was reminded again today (when she used papa’s bathroom area because someone was using hers) that ‘leave well enough’ alone became a useful phrase because it works. She kind of nudged a jar of sun cream over toward the wall so she could clean the mirror, and then she realized that the sun cream was in a particular spot that papa had chosen and maybe there was a reason for it being there.
Maybe ‘leaving alone’ is really the key here, since ‘well enough’ is pretty subjective! You know that feeling when you’re in people’s houses or cars and you really want to pick up the gum wrapper they dropped on the floor or maybe move their potted plant a little to the right nearer the sun or whatever comes to your meddling mind to “fix”? Well, don’t. Just enjoy other peoples’ ways of doing things.
Or if it bothers you so much that you have to interfere, go home.
Mama had a beautiful friend (I think this was in another blog but I have to repeat it because it’s pertinent–not perky, like me, but relevant to this situation), and this friend lent mama her house for two weeks and mama went around opening all the blinds and shutters to let in the beautiful Santa Barbara light and when the friend came back, she went ballistic–the friend, not mama. The reason: mama’s beautiful friend was also very sensitive about getting older and she kept all the blinds closed so that her aging would not be as evident as it could be in full light. And she could DO that. It’s her house and if she wants to live in the shadows, that’s HER business!
So from that experience, mama learned NEVER to move or change anything in anyone’s house where she house-sits or visits, and really, what’s the point? It’s someone else’s house, for heaven’s sake, not YOURS. And if a cleaning lady comes every now and then, mama says, “Just put everything back exactly where it was, please, and then I can find things easily.” And so they do. In fact, a really good cleaning person knows never to move things around in his or her own way or to his or her own taste, although when mama and papa took a little trip to Cuba long ago, their hotel towels disappeared from their bathroom and were found shaped into kissing swans on their beds in the shape of a heart!!! A little gift from the chambermaid for a little tip later on. That really touched my heart when mama told me that. Maybe in Cuba they could shape towels into KITTIES!
But just last week, I heard mama say to our helper here in the house, “Now be sure to put everything back where you found it, because my memory is awful and I’ll lose things if they aren’t where they were–and that goes for Loulou, too.”
Now what on earth did mama mean by that?
Everyone knows there is nothing on earth that can move me when I’m snoozing…
Don’t you dare make up this bed, you hear? I’ll make it up when I’m finished with what I’m doing…
You’re funny, Loulou. As if anyone would dare try to move you. But we understand what you mean. Jan gets very upset with us for moving things onto the floor.
Well, I move a few things around sometimes, but I try to put them back. Fat chance.